Aussies Put Ashore

WED 22 SEP 1943
Pacific
TF 76 (Rear Admiral Daniel E. Barbey) puts 20th Australian Brigade ashore at Finschhafen, New Guinea. [Not an attack on Japanese positions, just intolerance: "Another damn chorus of 'Waltzing Matilda' & I was going to make every last manjack of 'em walk the plank," the admiral did not say.]

Coastal transport APc-35, irreparably damaged by grounding en route to Renard Sound, New Georgia, 08°48'S, 157°46'E, is beached and abandoned.

Gunboat Charleston (PG-51) is damaged when accidentally rammed by U.S. merchant ship Sam Jackson, Kuluk Bay, Adak, Alaska.

Submarine Harder (SS-257) sinks Japanese merchant tanker Daishin Maru and cargo ship Kowa Maru, 34°46'N, 140°55'E.

Submarine Hoe (SS-258) attacks Japanese fleet tanker Gen'yo Maru, 10°08'N, 147°01'E.

Submarine Snook (SS-279) sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Katsurahama Maru, 39°00'N, 124°20'E, and damages merchant cargo ship Hakutetsu Maru, 39°15'N, 123°30'E.

Submarine Trigger (SS-237) damages Japanese army cargo ship Gyoku Maru, 26°27'N, 122°40'E.

Mediterranean
U.S. freighter Richard Olney, in convoy KMS 26, is mined off Bizerte, Tunisia, 37°25'N, 09°54'E; two of the 43-man merchant complement perish in the explosion. There are no casualties among the 31-man Armed Guard or among the 143 troop passengers. Although Richard Olney reaches Bizerte under tow of British (ex-Coast Guard) cutter HMS Landguard, the freighter will be written off as a total loss.

Ocean going tugs Moreno (AT-87) and Narragansett (AT-88) and British rescue tug HMS Weazel scuttle the stern section of U.S. Liberty ship William W. Gerhard with gunfire off Salerno.

Indian Ocean
British destroyer HMS Relentless rescues 34 survivors from two boats from U.S. Liberty ship Cornelia P. Spencer, torpedoed by German submarine U-188 the day before. Freighter Sandown Castle rescues 16 men from a third boat (see 6 October 1943).